Things are slowly coming together to create a more homely feel. Had a very productive day off work yesterday after my dentist appointment. The electrician came back to install our Ring Doobell Pro and Ring Floodlight Cams as well as fix the faulty media room dimmer/down light that never turned off...And a couple of purchases while I was in Kmart ~unsupervised~

So, the internet is still not fixed. They still have no idea why. They think it might be related to nbn co not finishing the job because they didn’t install the optional back up battery we requested. It’s really starting to give me the sh!ts! Our security cameras and door bell won’t work without WiFi and without nbn co doing their job, we have no WiFi.

This morning we made our first gardening purchases. Magnolia little gems! 20 of them! They will hedge along the fence and hopefully absorb some noise from the trains. They are tube stock though so it might take a little while to get to this stage. We also checked out the local market and they have a lot of plants so we are off there again in the very near future to pick up the rest of our garden! Aussie boomer lily pillies for the front, some pencil conifers to separate us from the neighbour, a bottle brush for our feature garden, agaves for our letterbox garden.

Today marks one year since slab day! Happy birthday foundations! It’s been almost 8 months that we have been in the house and we are starting to compile a list to put together for our 12mth post handover inspection. Nothing major or significant that we have come across so that’s good news. The tiles/grout is the only big one. We are considering hiring a private inspector just for piece of mind at this stage as we did every stage of the build.

We have lost 1 mock orange from the front in the recent rains due to water logging and there is one magnolia that looks like he is trying to hold on but might not make it. We also lost 3 of the 5 NZ Christmas bush but that’s because we forgot they were in the shed ready for planting. Oops. Otherwise they are growing amazing. Tube stock is the way to go if you have the patience to wait and nurture!

We are still plodding away with the garden edging but have been interrupted of late. So there are about 400 pavers in the garage blocking the drive through roller door... it’s just lucky I drive a small car so we can all still fit.

The fur babies have made themselves quite at home. Loving their space. Stella has returned to destroying doorframes. We had to upgrade the slider door handles to locks because they were breaking into the pantry and the media room. The knife block is also now locked in the pantry because one of the fools licked it and there was blood EVERYWHERE!! They are shifty and can’t be trusted.

The Ring cameras are excellent. A worthwhile investment! This is right now...

They have been very handy for checking to make sure you (and your neighbours) have closed the garage door,

We need to get one more stick up cam for the back and we are sorted on security!

We are now currently facing other issues.... it’s brought me to the point that I never want to build anything ever again that requires contractors or tradies or admin staff!We decided to jump right in and organize our shed! Titan now has a 6mth free option that allows us to pay it off without having to forgo such a huge chunk all at once. So here we are, 1 month later. We have a shed in our patio area and a slab - oh my god the slab!

Queue 2 very angry people!

It has been 2 weeks since the slab was laid. We dug our the slab ourselves to save the Turf and save the rest of the yard from a bobcat. We also paid extra money to have them wheelbarrow it all in to minimize the impact. We had concerns that the concretor did not do it to specs so The Titan supervisor came out to check for us. His words “I’m not liking what I see here”. It’s been 2 weeks of backwards and forwards and arguing and checking security footage and sleepless nights. It seems that they did not do the footings of the slab. Titan already requested payment for the slab and were paid so our interest free period has begun despite having a defective product.

We still have not received any satisfaction or solution or confirmation that it will be fixed so now we have had to organize a private inspector to come out and say yes or no. This is $121 out of our pockets for piece of mind. Next Thursday should bring answers but until then we will probably bang our heads on the bench a few more times

This is what we have currentlyLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Share

Fingers crossed this is sorted and I can be done once and for all with minimal swearing.

Oh and we decided to stain the fence. It looks so much better but really, who had he genius idea to buy a corner block with the never ending fence. Ha haLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Share

Your yard is looking amazing!!!!!Loving the steel panel fence with the wood posts- i really want that as our pool fence now, i think!As for your garden shed 😫 what a pain in the but!!!! Hope it all gets sorted for you asap!

Building a modified Grange 29 with Coral HomesNarangba HeightsMy Thread

Your yard is looking amazing!!!!!Loving the steel panel fence with the wood posts- i really want that as our pool fence now, i think!As for your garden shed what a pain in the but!!!! Hope it all gets sorted for you asap!

Thanks Dylandbrooke. We used a company called Fence Co and they were great. We installed it ourselves.

We are fast approaching out 12 month mark! Super exciting. But that also means it’s time to get the builders back through for the post handover inspection. For piece of mind, we have arranged for K-Spec to come through and prepare a report. The closer we look at things, the worse the finishes look.

The only major defect that we have come across is the grout in our main shower. It has been used a handful of times and the grout has mysteriously washed away.

The driveway is terrible. Rocks missing from the aggregate and where it meets the road where the gutter has been cut, there seems to be erosion. We were worried that this might happen after seeing the sh!tty finish when it was laid. Water pools instead of flowing down the gutter.

The painting is terrible. They have cut in around frames and what not with a brush but sprayed the walls. I’m not certain the right amount of coating has been applied. The brush and spray work leave different textures. Any spots that have been “fixed” are very obvious and not flush.

There is a crack on our bench top from the splash back windowsill.

The outside tile flashings are cracked! No surprise as this was dodgied up on handover and we told them this would happen.

Some smaller things, paint on carpet, nail sticking up under carpet, lock on bathroom door never worked, data point in media has never worked. We have gone room to room making notes.

We love our home. Once you are in you realize that there are things you would have done differently - pushed the toilet back, changed bed WIR to standard robe under eaves, put PowerPoints in different spots, insulation in the walls, that kind of thing

CMA has given us a beautiful home and we don’t regret our decisions, but there is definitely room for improvement from our journey. I sure hope they have implemented some change in the last 11 months